Improvement in machines for tentering and straightening fabrics



2 Sheets--Sheet i. I. E.. PALMER.

Machine for Tentering and Straightening Fabrics.v No. 161,896l Patented April13,i875.

THE GRAPHIC C0.PHTO .LlTH.39 8:41 PARK PLAGEJLY.

2 Sheets-Shet 2. I E. PALM ER.

Machine for 'Tenterng and Straightening Fabrics.

No. I6l,896.

Patented A'pr|13,187 5.

w WW* THEKSRAPHIG C0.PHOT0.-LITH.39 8141 PARK PLAOEJLY.

ISAAC E. PALMER, OF MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR TENTERING AND STRAIGHTENING FABRICS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No.

161,896, dated April 13, 1875; application filed August l5, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ISAAC E. PALMER, of Middletown, in the county of Middlesex and State of Connecticut, have invented certain Improvements in Machines for Tentering and Straightening Fabrics, of which the following is a specification:

This invention more particularly relates to apparatus for tentering and straightening clot-h and other fabrics, in which, as in Letters Patent No. 88,505 and No. 148,082, issued to me March 30, 1869, and March 3, 1874, combinations of adjustable oblique traveling selvage feeding and carrying devices are used, which devices, in some cases, as in my patent of March 3, 1874, operate in connection with endless belts, bands, or cords arranged to hold the selvages of the fabric in between them and the carrying devices, also in which machines the intermediate portion or body of the fabric is run overa divided longitudinally expanding and contracting friction frame or drag arranged between the selvage carrying and stretching devices, as in my patent of March 30, 1869.

This invention, however, essentially differs from these and other machines for a like purpose in several important respects 5 and consists in a novel combination of endless selvage-holding chains or bands, feeding-wheels, and idlers, whereby said chains or bands have a more free and perfect action. The invention likewise consists in an arrangement of separate selvage carrying, stretching, and feeding devices on opposite sides of the machine, driven in a positive manner, with facility not only for driving said devices on one side of the machine and not on the other, but of positively driving them at dilferent velocities relatively with each other, to adjust the stretch or feed on opposite sides, as required. The invention also consists in a combination, with the selvage carrying and stretching devices, of a roller on the delivery side of the latter at the foot of the chains forming part of said devices, whereby the stretch given to the fabric is better preserved in its passage from the stretching devices to the first drying-cylinder. The invention likewise consists in various novel combinations of devices connected with the obliquely-arranged selvage carrying and stretchin g devices, for changing their obliquity, as required, for driving the same, and for checking or controlling the one set of such devices on the one side of the machine relatively to the other set of said devices on the other side of the machine. Furthermore, the invention consists in a friction stretchingframe or drag, constructed so as not only to be capable of expansion and contraction breadth- Wise of the web, but also, if necessary, of being more or less bowed in or out radially relatively to the axes of the traveling selvage-carriers, whereby more perfect provision is made for regulating the stretch of the fabric between the selvages.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a machine constructed in central vertical section in a direction transverse to the feed; Fig. 3, a plan, and Fig. 4 a vertical section on the liner x. Fig. 5 is a view, in perspective, of a section of either selvage-holdin g chain.

A A are the divergin g or obliqnely-arranged selvage-carrying wheels on opposite sides or ends of the machine, and onto and between which and endless chains B B, moving in common with the wheels, the selvages of the is introduced to the machine under a roller or bar, b, in front, and so that its selvages pass wheels A A, and under the holdin g-chains B B on the narrowest or mostcontracted side of said devices, while the body of the fabric passes up over the intermediate stretching frame or drag.

The selvage-holding chains B B may be variously constructed, but they are here shown (see Fig. 5) as composed ot' duplicate upper and lower disks connected with each other by narrower intermediate links, so that the disks overlap the latter, to give them an elastic hold on the fabric, and the lower range of said disks have a lip or flange, c, which serves to guide them in their travel over the carryingwheels A A in a 'for ward direction, and in their return over loose wheels or idlers C C, the iianges cresting against the inner sides ofthe rolls A C.

By this construction of the chains the tendl FICEL accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a fabric to be tentered are passed. Said fabric upwardly to between the selvage-carrying ency of the tension of the fabric to draw the* chains toward each other is prevented, as the flanges c have a bearing against the outer sides of the rolls A A, and preserve the tension of the fabric.

rlhe idlers C C occupy an outside parallel relation with the carrying-wheels A A, upon the shafts d d of which they turn loosely, and they are of corresponding diameter, or thereabout, with the carrying-wheels, the chains B B passing, as described, in reverse directions over the wheels A and C, and around intermediate front and back guide-rolls D E, which may be adjustable by means of screws e to keep the chains at the necessary tautness. The inner length or line of these chains travels in common with the carrying-wheels A-that is, toward the back of the machine, or in the diverging direction of said wheels, as indicated by arrow in Fig. 4, and the carryingwheels A, the idlers O, and the guide-rolls D E at each side or end of the machine are carried by turn-tables F to vary the Obliquity, as required of the selvage-carrying wheels and holding-chains. This is doneindependently, as regards the two sets of selvage-controlling devices on opposite sides of the machine, by means of screws j' and worm wheels or sectors g connected with the turn-tables F. These turn-tables F are carried by slides G, adjustable by means of right and left hand screwthreads h on a shaft, I, along a lower cross bed or beds J to vary the distance apart of the selvage-carrying and holding or stretching devices. The selvage-carrying wheels A A, which may be of any suitable elastic or roughened construction on their peripheries, are driven by bevel-pinions K K arranged to gear with miter wheels or surfaces L L on the outer faces of the carrying-wheels, the shafts k of said pinions passing down through lower studs or sleeves ofthe turn-tables F,A and carrying on their lower ends bevel-pinions M M,which gear with bevel-pinions N N on independent lower horizontal shafts O fitted with independent conical pulleys P P, to either or both of which motion is communicated by bands or belts from conical pulleys Q, Q, fast on a general horizontal driving-shaft It. This arrangenient or combination of devices admits of 011e set of selvage driving and holding devices being run or driven in a positive manner at a different velocity from those on the other side of the machine, or the one set of such devices may be temporarily arrested to provide for various contingencies as regards the run of the fabric at the one selva ge relatively to the other, or to the body of the fabric. This is Vdone by shifting the belts or bands which connect the conical pulleys Q Q with the independently-operating conical pulleys P P, by means of sliding belt-shifters S S. These belt-Shifters may be actuatedin various ways, but preferably by the feet of the operators-as, for instance, by means of pinions T arranged to gear with sliding racks V carrying the beltshifters, the shafts l l of said pinions being provided with foot-rolls V for the purpose of enabling the operators to actuate the pinions to the right or to the left as required, by simply slightly working the foot on or over the rolls. Instead of the foot-rolls being on the shafts `l Z the said shafts may be geared by bevel-gears with two short horizontal shafts arranged parallel with the shaft O, and the foot-rolls may be arranged on the two shafts in a positive manner near together to be conveniently worked by one operator sitting in front of the machine. The combination of the primary conical pulleys Q Q and secondary independently-operating conical pulleys P P, for separately or independently regulating the inotions of the two sets of selvage-carrying or feeding and holding devices on opposite sides of the machine, constitutes a very simple and effective means for attaining the desired end. Furthermore, by the concentric arrangement of the shafts k with the turn-tables F, the turning of the ta-bles in no way interferes with the drivin g of the wheels A A under all adjustments of the latter. To provide for the setting in or out, relatively to cach other, ot' the selvage-carrying wheels A A by the movemeut of the slides Gr along the bed or beds J, the piuions N should be fitted to slide by feather on the independent shafts O which carry them, or other provision should be made for the adjustment of the said gears.

Arranged across the machine, at the foot of the chains B B, or im inediatcly below the guiderolls E E, around which the back ends of the chains pass, is a delivery-roller, A', beneath which the fabric passes in an upward direction to the iirst of the usual or any suitable series of drying-rolls. This interposition of theroller A' between the delivery ends ofthe chains and said drying cylinder serves to prevent the stretched fabric from losing its stretch in passing from the tentering devices to the dryingcylinder by reducing the exposure of the fabric to an unsupported run during such passage. I prefer to apply to this roller some means of producing friction to act as brake, that the roller may produce a drag on the fabric. Instead of the roller, a bar might be used, but the roller with friction is preferable. When it is not desired to maintain at a fixed tension the stretch of the fabric between said roller or bar and the drying-cylinder, then-the selvage carrying and stretching devices and roller A', or bar on the delivery side of the latter, may be moved in common farther away from the first drying-cylinder.

The friction frame or drag interposed between the selvage carrying or holding and stretching devices for stretching the fabric between its selvages and preventing its body from running ahead ofthe selvages, is of stationary construction and composed of any number of divided stringers extending across the machine, and so that the same are not only capable of being expanded or contracted in a transverse relation with the feed or run ofthe fabric over them, but also capable of bein gset straight or of being bowed in or out radially, in relation with the traveling selvage-carriers, for the purpose of adjusting the stretch on the body of the fabric. To this end the strin gers composing the drag are made up of longitudinally-slotted bars B' B' and C' C', with or withoutwings D' D', the whole being carried in an adjustable manner, as regards setting them in or out relatively to the axes of the wheels A A, by means of attached sliding rods or guides b' b' entering iixed standards E', and retained in position therewith by set-screws or otherwise, andthe center bars C' C' of each Stringer being jointed or pivoted to each other, as at c.

It is preferred to leave a wide vacant space, as at G', between these stringers composing the drag, in the upper portion of the latter, for the purpose of allowing the fabric by slightly sagging, to adjust or recovervitself if unduly or irregularly stretched in its passage over the drag.

I claim- 1. The combination, with the oblique or di- .vergin gly arranged selvage-carrying wheels A A of the loose side Wheels or idlers C C, the chains or bands B B and the front and back guides or rolls D E, substantially as specilied.

2. rlhe combination, with the selvage-holding chains or bands B B and the selvage-carrying wheels A A of the transverse delivery and drag-roller A', arranged at the foot of said chains, in rear of them, essentially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

3. The turn-tables F, in combination with the slides G and selvage carrying and stretching devices, mounted on or carried by said tables, substantially as specified.

4. The combination, with` the turn-tables Fv and the slides G, of the upright shafts k, ar-

ranged to occupy a concentric relation with said tables, the pinions K, and the miter-wheels or surfaces L, attached to the selvage-carrying wheels A, substantially as described.

5. rlhe combination, with separately-hung and independently-operating selvage-carriers on opposite sides of the machine, of means, substantially as described, for positively driving said carrying devices at diiferent velocities relatively with each other, essentially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

6. The combination of the conical drivingpulleys Q Q with the conical secondary pulleys P P, the independent shafts O O, the beltshifters S S, and gearing connecting the independent shafts O O with the selvage-carrying wheels A A, essentially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

7. The combination of the foot-rolls V V and their shafts l Z with the belt-Shifters S S, the conical driving-pulleys Q Q, and the secondary independently-operating conical pulleys P P, substantially as specified.

8. The friction frame or drag constructed of strin gers composed of sliding and jointed sections, substantially as described, whereby said frame may not only be expanded or contracted longitudinally, but may also be set in or out and bowed in a radial direction relatively with the selvage carryin gA and stretching wheels or devices, essentially as herein set forth.

ISAAC E. PALMER.

Witnesses:

HENRY T. BROWN, FRED. HAYNEs. 

